


darling do not fear

by ElectricPurple89



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bedtime Stories, Fluff, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Kind of a fix-it, M/M, Quentin and Eliot are dads again, canon doesnt exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21714133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectricPurple89/pseuds/ElectricPurple89
Summary: The roaring thunder woke her up. She peeked at her alarm clock and realized it had only been two hours since Daddy and Papa had finished putting her to bed. She was six and six year olds shouldn't be scared of thunder, but it was really loud and Mr. Cozy; her stuffed rainbow horse Aunt Alice had given her when she was a baby; wasn't helping at all.Maybe if she just went and checked to make sure Daddy and Papa were okay too, she could just climb into bed with them before they noticed.
Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Comments: 7
Kudos: 65





	darling do not fear

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea of Eliot and Quentin telling their daughter a story when she wakes up. It morphed into a kind of fix-it in that their daughter wants to hear the monster story, so Q and El kid it up. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Title comes from the song by Brett Dennen

The roaring thunder woke her up. She peeked at her alarm clock and realized it had only been two hours since Daddy and Papa had finished putting her to bed. She was six and six year olds shouldn't be scared of thunder, but it was really loud and Mr. Cozy; her stuffed rainbow horse Aunt Alice had given her when she was a baby; wasn't helping at all.

Maybe if she just went and checked to make sure Daddy and Papa were okay too, she could just climb into bed with them before they noticed. She felt a little nuzzle from a cold nose on her arm and realized Falkor had come to check on her. "Falkor you silly puppy, come on let's go check on Daddy and Papa and make sure they’re safe." Daddy and Papa had gotten Falkor before she was born, but everyone still called him a puppy. 

She held onto Mr. Cozy tightly and clambered out of bed and tiptoed out into the hallway. The faithful yellow lab by her side and following her every move. Her parent's bedroom was just down the stairs, but she stopped when she the light coming from under their door. She could hear their voices. Why weren’t they asleep? Didn’t they go to bed when she did. 

The thunder getting louder and the rain was pounding on the roof, so she turned the doorknob ever so slightly and hoped they wouldn't be too mad at her for getting out of bed. She would blame it on Mr. Cozy and maybe they would buy that. 

"Margo Julia Coldwater-Waugh what are you doing out of bed?" Her Daddy asked her, setting down his glasses and resting the book he was reading on his lap as he looked at her.

Papa poked his head out of their bathroom, a toothbrush in his hand, to see what was going on. "Junior, you know you have school tomorrow and you need your sleep sweetheart." He said matter-of-factly. 

"I know Papa, but it's really loud and Mr. Cozy is scared and I thought maybe if it was okay, we could just stay with you and Daddy for a little bit? Until we fell asleep again?" She looked at them the way Aunt Margo had told her to when she wanted something and hoped they would say yes. That way she wouldn’t have to fall back to sleep alone. She watched them as they looked at each other. They did that a lot, sometimes she wondered if they were like Uncle Penny and could talk in their minds.

"Well since Mr. Cozy is scared I guess it's okay if you both sleep with us tonight." Daddy finally said. 

She ran and jumped up on the bed and Daddy picked her up and set her down next to him. She was quickly followed by Falkor who curled himself down at her feet. "Mr. Cozy said he's very thankful, Daddy," she said as she snuggled into him.

"Oh, well that's very good to hear. We wouldn't want Mr. Cozy to feel scared now would we?" Papa Told her as he got under the covers on his side and wrapped an arm around her. “You check on the boys?” Papa asked Daddy.

“Yeah, they’re fine. Both were sleeping soundly. In fact, I had only been back in bed for ten minutes when a certain daughter of ours showed up.” Daddy answered giving her a look. 

"Is it okay if I'm scared too Papa?" She asked in a small voice. She was the oldest and supposed to be brave for her little brothers, but she hated thunderstorms.

"Of course darling. Daddy and I will always keep you safe from the storm and anything else." Papa said as he kissed her forehead and then reached down to scratch Falkor's ear. 

"But Theo and Sebastian aren’t scared." Her brothers could sleep through anything. Theo was four and Sebastian was two. She liked Sebastian more than Theo. 

"I know and it’s okay that you are. Your little brothers are scared of a lot of things that you aren’t" Daddy told her as he wrapped one of his arms around her. She felt him curl his fingers into Papa’s hand. 

"They are? What are they scared of?” She asked him. 

Her Daddy nodded, "Mmhhmm. Well, let’s see Theo is scared of Tick and Abigail. Sebastian is scared of all bugs."

“Sebastian is also scared of the dark, so that’s why he and Theo have a nightlight in their room.” Papa added. 

"I’m not scared of any of those things!" She said with a wide smile.

“You are definitely not MJ.” Daddy told her with a laugh and then looked at Papa again. 

“Can I have a story? It might help me sleep.” She asked and hoped they’d tell her the one she wanted to hear. 

"Oh will it? Well, what story would you like to hear sweetheart?" Papa asked.

"Can you tell me about you saved Daddy?” She asked with her big eyes. They’d never told her this story before and she wanted to hear it. She loved all the stories they told her about before they became them. It was the kind of story that no one seemed to want to tell her. She knew that before she was born something bad happened and Papa had to save Daddy with Aunt Alice and Aunt Margo. Uncle Josh had joked about parts of it one time when they were in Fillory, but then everyone had given him looks and he stopped.

She watched as they looked back and forth between them. Daddy’s eyes were wide. 

“I don’t know if you should hear that story Junior.” Papa said in a soft voice. “It might not be the most appropriate bedtime story for a six year old.”

“Please, please, please.” She clasped her hands together as she pleaded with them. She just wanted to know what happened. “I just want to hear about you rescuing Daddy, Papa.”

They looked at each other again. She really hated when they did that.

“Q?” She heard Papa ask Daddy. He sad Daddy’s name in the soft way that he did sometimes. 

“MJ honey, do you really want to hear this story? It’s not the best one.” Daddy inquired with the tone he only used when something was big and important.

She nodded yes. It wasn’t that bad of a story, she thought. Daddy was here and so was Papa and all her Aunts and Uncles were here. However sad the story got she knew the ending was happy because it ended with her and her brothers.

Daddy took a deep breath in and exhaled. She watched as Papa leaned over and touched his forehead to Daddy’s. 

“Sweetheart, we'll tell you the story, but there are some things that Daddy and I will save for when you're older and some things that are just for Daddy and I, okay?" Papa said as he leaned back against his pillows. 

"Okay, Papa." She sighed figuring it was better they were going to tell her something rather than nothing. 

"Alright let's see huh, once upon a time in a land far, far away Daddy and I had to go on a quest together in order to save all of magic.” Papa began using her favorite storybook voice he had. 

“That's Fillory Papa! I know that story already! You and Daddy went to Fillory and my big brother Teddy was there and you found the time key!” She beamed with pride at knowing no much of the story already. Papa and Daddy always told them stories about their big brother Teddy and their Aunt Arielle. Papa thought they might have relatives in Fillory still, but Aunt Fen hadn't met any yet. 

"You know everything huh, don't you? Well, you see after we got all the keys we had to travel all the way to Castle Blackspire and activate the well spring with them." Papa continued. "When we; all your aunts and uncles and your Daddy and I; arrived, there was a monster we had to defeat. Daddy had this great plan, but Aunt Margo and I thought it was dumb and took matters into our own hands." Papa paused and looked at Daddy who had this weird look on his face. 

"Daddy's plan wouldn't work?" She asked him unsure why he thought Daddy's plan was dumb. Daddy usually had great plans.

"It might have, but in order for it to have worked, I would have had to stay and play with the monster and Papa and Aunt Margo wouldn’t let me do that." Daddy added. "They thought they were helping."

“That was smart of them.” She smiled. She didn’t want Daddy to have to stay with a monster either. 

"So Aunt Margo and I came up with a different plan and it did not work, and then when we tried to get to the wellspring with the keys we were stopped by the evil library" Papa said the last bit in his scary voice.

"The library isn't evil Papa! Aunt Alice and Aunt Kady are in charge!" 

"That is very true little one, but before they were in charge it was evil. So where was I?" 

"The evil library" Daddy answered waving his hands and doing a spooky voice as he did. 

Papa gave him a look, "Anyways” Papa continued, “The library took control of all the magic and they sent us all away, but Dean Fogg saved us in his own way. He hid us hoping we’d be safe.” 

“”But Dean Fogg didn’t know that the monster had gotten out and taken Papa, and since we were all hidden from each other we couldn’t help.” Daddy added. 

“What happened?” She didn’t want Papa with the monster either. 

“Well, Aunt Kady is really smart and figured out what was happening and found us. She, Aunt Margo, Uncle Penny and Uncle Josh were found by Marina who thought she could break the spell on them.” Daddy told her. 

“Did she break the spell?”

“Actually your Aunt Julia did! Uncle Todd was helping her and they were able to break the spell.”Daddy said with a smile. 

“Uncle Todd is so funny.” She laughed. Papa always made a face when they mentioned Uncle Todd’s name. He was making it now when he looked at Daddy. 

“So, everyone was themselves again after Aunt Julia broke the spell, but they didn’t know where Papa and I were so they were worried.”

“You see, the monster had taken Daddy after it had broken out and when everyone was back the monster decided to take Daddy to them. The monster thought they could help him. All your Aunts and Uncles and Daddy thought that if they helped the monster that the monster would give me back to them.”

“But the monster tricked us and told us that Papa was gone forever.”

“That’s not very nice of the monster!” She told them. 

“Very mean.” Daddy concurred. “I was very sad because Papa was one of my best friends and we hadn’t told anyone about the mosaic yet.”

“But you tell Aunt Margo everything!?” She was confused. Aunt Margo knew all of her dads’ stories. 

“Sweetheart, sometimes Papa and I aren’t the smartest.”

“Which is why we now tell Aunt Margo everything!” Papa added.

"Did you come up with a plan to find Papa?" 

"Yep! You see Aunt Margo went back to Fillory and ended up on her own kind of quest where she found her axes. I decided to stay on Earth and try to come up with a plan of my own. I wasn’t having a lot of success so Aunt Alice came and helped.”

"Aunt Alice is sooooo smart!"

"She really is isn’t she? Aunt Julia, Uncle Penny, Aunt Alice and I were working on our plan that we had come up with when Aunt Margo came back, so we combined forces to save Papa.” Daddy said. “We had everything set and everyone knew what they were supposed to do. We lured the monster away from Brakebills and Aunt Margo saved Papa while Uncle Penny and I sealed the monster up. Uncle Penny, Aunt Alice and I went to go send the monster away while Aunt Margo stayed with Papa in the hospital since he got hurt when she saved him.” He continued.

"Why didn't you stay with Papa?" She questioned. She didn’t understand how her Daddy would not stay. Last month Papa got sick and Daddy took care of him. 

They looked at each other again. 

"Well, you see I wasn't thinking too much at the time. I was just trying to get rid of the monster and I was scared and sad and I knew Aunt Margo was with him." Daddy told her and then she looked at Papa who had an expression she hadn't ever seen on his face before. He looked sad.

"It's okay Papa, this story has a happy ending." She snuggled into him trying to comfort him.

He chuckled, "You're right darling, it does, but I'm just remembering a sad part." 

"Did you get rid of the monster, Daddy though right?"

"We did. I sent the monster far, far away so that it would never hurt Papa or anyone again. I had to use magic when I did that and I got hurt, but Uncle Penny got to me in time and took me to Professor Lipson. She put me in a deep sleep so I could heal. Aunt Margo made them put me and Papa in the same room.” Daddy laughed a little and smiled at that last part.

"So Professor Lipson saved you?" She thought that Papa had saved Daddy. 

"To begin with, but Daddy was having a hard time, so when I got better Uncle Penny helped me go inside Daddy’s head and we talked and I helped him to come back.” Papa explained. 

"Then you saved each other?" She asked with a smile. 

"Yeah, I guess we did sweetheart." Daddy replied giving her another smile and laugh. 

Papa took Daddy's hand again. 

"And then we all lived happily ever after, right?" She asked with her big smile.

"I don't know if I'd say happily ever after, but definitely happy." Papa said. 

"No, you definitely did! You and Daddy got married and you got Falkor and then Aunt Margo helped you have me, Theo and Sebastian and I have the best Aunts and Uncles and I can do magic!" She told them, waving her arms in emphasis like Daddy did Sometimes.

Papa had that little smile on his face he got sometimes when Daddy was explaining something, "I guess that does sound pretty good, huh?"

Daddy looked horrified, "Margo-Julia Coldwater-Waugh, did you just say you could do magic?" He asked in an even and calm voice.

"Yeah, Aunt Julia taught me."

Now Papa looked horrified, "Daddy and I are going to have a talk with Aunt Julia tomorrow. Now come on we told you the story, so now it's time for bed." 

"Okayyyyy." She sighed. "Will you sing me my lullaby, Papa?" 

He softened, "Yes of course my darling girl."

They snuggled into each other and Papa sang her favorite song while she held tightly to Mr. Cozy and fell asleep to the rhythm of her fathers’ heartbeats.


End file.
